WikiLeaks has altered the leaking game for good. Now they must be fewer, but better kept ~ Timothy #Garton-Ash

— For whistleblowers, government and press, the age of digileaks cries out for new rules on what to hide – and reveal

by

Timothy Garton-Ash, Guardian, 30 March 2011

Garton Ash suggests two guiding principles:

[1] …”be open about your grounds for secrecy, transparent about your non-transparency. Have clear criteria and be ready to defend them. They should be able to withstand the following, somewhat paradoxical test: if this piece of information became public, could you credibly explain why it should not have become public?”

[2] “…protect less, but protect it better. There is a vast amount of stuff that governments and organisations keep secret for no good reason. ”

“..decide what you really do need to keep secret, on consistent, defensible criteria, and then do your damnedest to keep it secret. Don’t, for example, upload it to a database accessible to hundreds of thousands of people. .”